The Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF) is an annual film festival

Film festival

A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...

 held in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 for about 4–5 days in November. Launching in 1996 , it is Canada’s oldest Asian film festival, exhibiting films and videos by North American artists of Asian heritage. Awards include a juried award for Best Canadian Short. Categories include: Narrative (i.e. drama, comedy, romance), Documentary, Animation, and Experimental. Visiting artists have included Ham Tran

Ham Tran

Ham Tran is a Vietnamese American film writer/editor/director, of Hoa ancestry. He earned an MFA in film directing from the UCLA Film School and is most famous for his thesis film "The Anniversary", which was shortlisted for an Academy Award for Live Action Short Film...

, Justin Lin

Justin Lin

Justin Lin is a Taiwanese American film director, best known for his work on Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and the Furious franchise and the television show, Community.-Life and career:...

, Michael Kang

Michael Kang

Michael Kang may refer to:*Michael Kang , director of the 2006 independent film The Motel*Michael Kang , member of the String Cheese Incident...

 and Jessica Yu

Jessica Yu

Jessica Lingman Yu is an American film director, writer, producer, and editor. She has worked on documentaries, dramatic films, and television shows. Yu won an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject for Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien .-Early life:Yu graduated from Gunn...

, as well as BC filmmakers, Mina Shum

Mina Shum

Mina Shum is an independent Canadian filmmaker. She is director resident at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto...

 and Julia Kwan

Julia Kwan

Julia Kwan is a Vancouver-based filmmaker who studied film and minored in psychology at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto. She was also a director resident at Norman Jewison's prestigious Canadian Film Centre, where she made her award-winning short, Three Sisters on Moon Lake...

. The festival has been host to major stars such as Grace Park

Grace Park (actress)

Grace Park is an American-born Canadian actress. She gained recognition as Sharon Valerii on Battlestar Galactica, as well as Shannon Ng in the Canadian television series teen soap Edgemont...

and others. VAFF is a not-for-profit organization.